Ukraine War Maps Show How Conflict Changed in One Month

Russian forces have advanced west of Avdiivka and continue their offensive operations in the area, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) has said, as its maps of the front show how the war has developed.

Two weeks after Ukraine’s forces retreated from the small Donetsk regional city of Avdiivka, the Washington, D.C., independent think tank said on Friday that geolocated footage showed the advance of part of Russia’s 114th Motorized Rifle Brigade to the west of the town, on the outskirts of Orlivka.

The ISW’s charts on February 1 and March 1 give a snapshot of how the conflict has played out over the last four weeks. Russia took Avdiivka and tried to capitalize on the gains that have handed Moscow the momentum as Ukraine struggles with ammunition shortages and a hold-up in Western support.

The think tank’s assessed control of terrain near Donetsk City from February 1 showed Russian forces had advanced north of Stepove and made gains northeast of Avdiivka, where they had been fighting a fierce offensive since October, at a high cost of troops and equipment.

Newsweek has emailed the Russian Defense Ministry for comment.

A month later, an ISW map shows the contours of Russian control with its advances moving further east and indicating Avdiivka’s capture and Moscow’s seizure of nearby Berdychi, Orlivka and Lastochkyne, and Ukraine’s withdrawal from Stepove, according to military bloggers.

On February 1, the ISW map shows how in the Luhansk region, Russian forces had made advances towards Tabaivka, south of Kupiansk, with other gains further south, around Torske and Kreminna. A month later, the map showed Russia was still making small advances in Tabaivka.

On Friday, Ukrainian Tavria Group of Forces Commander Brigadier General Oleksandr Tarnavsky acknowledged Russian gains. He said that, in the Avdiivka direction, Moscow’s troops were intensifying indirect fires and increasing the size of their assault groups to the size of a “battalion tactical group.”

However, despite its gains on the battlefield, Russia has been reeling from aircraft losses. It has likely stopped flying its A-50 early warning and control planes after two of them were downed in a matter of weeks, British defense officials said.

Ukraine’s Air Force spokesperson Yurii Ihnat said on February 27 that Kyiv had not detected Russia using the $300 million plane key to its air and ground operations since one of them had been downed four days earlier.

The U.K. Ministry of Defense said on Saturday that the A-50 fleet was likely to have been grounded pending an investigation and figuring “how to mitigate the threat Ukrainian air defense continues to pose.”